 | ||||
RepublicanGazette
Abernathy Strategies
Submissions welcome
The Republican Gazette welcomes Emails to the Editor and press releases. All submitted items must include the name and contact information for the author of the article, and all articles will only be published with the author's name included. Thank you for reading and participating in The Republican Gazette, another of West Virginia's most biased publications.
All opinions are those of The Republican Gazette and its editor, Gary Abernathy, except letters or commentary signed by others, and do not reflect the views of anyone else, including clients of Abernathy Strategies.
-------
Search the Republican Gazette ---->
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 "When news breaks, we fix it" Serving West Virginia since 2005
Russ Weeks: An American Life
Thompson, Tomblin claim constitution doesn't apply; Mojo says he's powerless
In response to pay raise lawsuit
The weakness of the defenses offered by the leaders of the State Legislature and Gov. Joe Manchin to Russ Weeks' lawsuit challenging the pay raise is made clear by their almost laughable responses.Lawyers for House Speaker Rick Thompson and Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin claim that even though the constitution clearly prohibits lawmakers from voting themselves raises that will take effect during their current terms, "the Legislature is not bound by that constitutional requirement, so long as they follow the recommendations of the Citizens Legislative Compensation Commission," as reported by TheCharleston Gazette.
So the CLCC is more powerful than the state constitution? Good to know for future reference.Manchin, for his part, is claiming that he should be dismissed as a defendant in the suit because "the governor can't provide any relief in the case, so he shouldn't be a party to it," according to The Associated Press.Seriously? So if you crash into someone's car but can't afford to pay for the damages, you should be immune from any charges against you. Right?The Court is scheduled to consider motions in the case on June 25.Manchin breaks promise to make Dem platform 'abortion neutral'
Four years ago, Gov. Joe Manchin promised West Virginians for Life that in 2008 the Democrat party platform would be "abortion neutral."But, like all his promises to WVFL, this one was broken too, as the Democrat state convention came and went with the pro-choice platform plank still intact. WVFL board members met Saturday to consider endorsements for the 2008 general election. The most contentious endorsement decision was expected to involve the race for governor, and Manchin has been aggressively lobbying for the endorsement over GOP opponent Russ Weeks, for whom abortion has been a more serious issue throughout his life and career.WV Dems name gay rights activist as delegate for Obama
West Virginia Democrats have named a leading gay rights activist as a delegate for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention.Stephen Skinner is head of "Fairness WV," which he calls "West Virginia's first state-wide LGBT advocacy organization. Fairness is dedicated to bringing fair treatment to all West Virginians."LGBT, of course, stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual. The goal of Fairness WV is to "lobby the West Virginia legislature, the governor and state agencies to insure fundamental fairness through the state."Skinner will be serving as a delegate from the 2nd Congressional District along side Natalie Tennant, Karen Coria, Pearl Reardon, Erik Wells, Jim Humphreys, and Meshea Poore.Skinner has been described as "an up and coming 'star' in the state party."And some people claim West Virginia Democrats are conservative. WVGOP prepares for big convention
Republicans from across West Virginia will gather in Flatwoods Saturday for their state convention, where they will finalize delegates and alternates to the national convention, elect a national committeeman and committeewoman, approve the party's platform, and hear remarks from speakers ranging from former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to GOP gubernatorial candidate Russ Weeks.Also scheduled to make remarks are Secretary of State Betty Ireland and Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, as well as several other statewide candidates.GOP Chairman Doug McKinney will open the morning session with welcoming remarks focusing on the state of the party. The morning will be devoted to the summer meeting of the GOP state executive committee, while the afternoon session will be the state convention itself.One interesting item on the morning agenda will be the election of national committee members. Committeeman Jim Reed is not expected to face competition, but committeewoman Donna Gosney is being challenged by Lynn Staton, wife of former Congressman Mick Staton.The Governor has given notice to legislators that he is calling a special session of the Legislature to begin on Tuesday, June 24, beginning at 5:00 p.m. This special session is scheduled to begin at the end of regular interim legislative meetings to be held this Sunday through Tuesday. The informal notice I received from the Governor's office said that the special session is expected to last through Wednesday and possibly through Thursday, June 26.We have not been given any notice of the agenda. Typically, in special sessions, we do not get any advance notice of what is on the agenda for consideration until we show up for the beginning of the special session. That means we will most likely see the proposed legislation at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, when the session begins, if even then, and not a moment before. This is the way the Governor of West Virginia controls the Legislature during special sessions, making sure the agenda and proposed legislation are not given to legislators in time for them to disseminate the information to the public and get adequate public feedback prior to being forced to vote on it.One item that is certain to be on the agenda however, is funding the teacher's merger. The final tally shows that 78.3% of teachers in the private defined contribution plan elected to convert to the publicly funded defined benefit plan. Funding the cost of this merger to bail out teachers' private retirement losses will have to be addressed in the special session.At one time, we were told that the cost of the retirement bailout this year would be $20 million, and that it should be less than that with so many teachers electing to go into the defined benefit plan. But, I am now informed by some reliable sources that there may be an additional $11 million cost that was not disclosed to legislators when they voted upon the merger plan in a special session in March. That cost involves the early withdraw penalty for taking money out of the private pension plan that teachers are now in, and putting the money into the government run defined benefit plan. This early withdrawal penalty is the same as if you make an early withdrawal from your own private pension system or IRA. We were assured by the Governor's representatives in March that this was not a problem, but I am now told by some insiders I trust that it is a major problem because it was not addressed when the legislation was hurriedly rushed through the special session without a full public airing.If that is true, it demonstrates one of the problems with special sessions, where the agenda is totally controlled by the Governor and the legislative leadership. The merger plan was passed in a one-day special session at the end of the regular session in March. There were several legislators who thought that one day was not enough to consider the ramifications of this retirement legislation, and I unsuccessfully voted with them to keep the legislature in session another day, but the Governor and the leadership wanted it pushed through in one day.The argument of leadership against taking more time to consider legislation in special sessions is that it costs $40,000 per day for every day the legislature is in session, and that it is a waste of taxpayer's money to keep the Legislature in session. That is a case of being penny wise and pound foolish in many instances, however, because sometimes with a day or two more in special session, we could save tens of millions of dollars by allowing time for the public to scrutinize legislation before voting on it.If the true cost of the teacher's retirement is another undisclosed $11 million, for example, it might have made sense to stay in session another day, get the full information before casting an uninformed vote, and fix the problem. The fix was relatively easy and could have been done in another day, saving taxpayers $11 million. Now it is too late. So, for the sake of "saving" $40,000, an $11 million mistake was made at taxpayers' expense, assuming the information I have received from informed sources is true. Of course, this additional $11 million in costs may be hidden until after the election in November, as legislators will not want to reveal their $11 million mistake in an election year. Other defects and ambiguities are in the retirement merger bill, but maybe we can fix some of the more minor problems in the special session. It is often in these special sessions where we are asked to vote on supplemental budget appropriations that contain pork and wasteful spending. Legislators are pushed to vote on appropriations for tens of millions of dollars without having adequate disclosure of where the money is going, only to find out later which powerful legislator is going to privately profit on the appropriation through a development project. Of course, those who are getting the pork are willing to overlook the pork others are getting as long as they get theirs too. One thing we can usually be assured of as Eastern Panhandle legislators, however, is that 98% or more of the pork will be for regions other than the Eastern Panhandle.Lawmakers in dark on special session
By State Sen. John Yoder
No truth to rumor that Joey Oliverio will lead GOP for Obama effort
On the heels of the big announcement that Icky Frye was named as a prominent Democrat for John McCain, rumors naturally started swirling that Democrats were trying to snag Joey Oliverio to lead a Republicans for Obama movement in West Virginia.Like Frye, Oliverio is a former candidate for governor, who promised at one point to turn southern West Virginia into a drive-thru zoo.The Obama forces are reportedly worried that the McCain campaign might corner the market on crossover support from fringe candidates of the opposite party, so snagging Oliverio's support for Obama would have been a real coup.However, the rumors appear to be unfounded, and the Obama campaign is still searching for someone to match Icky's star power. 